


Shame On Me

by Charmkeeper



Series: Fools and Shame [2]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: A lot of Hurt, Backstory OneShot, M/M, Witch AU, forced relationships - Freeform, very little comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-11
Updated: 2019-10-11
Packaged: 2020-10-20 22:55:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20683292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Charmkeeper/pseuds/Charmkeeper
Summary: Ardyn saved his life as child. Apparently that meant he thought he owned it. Prompto disagreed.





	Shame On Me

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Friday to all! <3
> 
> Before we get started I want you all to note that I chose not to put warnings on this story. I will now tell you why. I have it in tags, actually, "Forced Relationship." It is there because while I truly do gloss over it in every way I possibly can, there is a **Non Consensual Relationship** at the core of the trauma in this story. I am warning you right here, if you cannot handle that or just plain old don't want to read that, please turn back now.
> 
> In general, this is a glossed over backstory for Prompto. It may answer all your questions. Maybe it will only give you more.
> 
> Please enjoy. <3

Most people have a defining moment in their lives. Not everyone can name or even remember the moment exactly, but it shapes their entire lives. Prompto can both name and vividly remember his defining moment. For him, that moment came deep in a winter storm, huddled next to Cindy against a giant wooden door.

He couldn't remember precisely how they came to be at that door, just a loose string of events. They'd been at a human orphanage, where he knew, mostly because he remembered Cindy telling him, that day by day they were closer to being burned. It wasn't until he was older that he would understand that witch children were thought to be curable - if you could beat the magic out of them. Cindy was almost twelve, and Prompto...younger, no one was precisely sure how old he was. No older than eight, they thought.

It was pretty clear, Prompto would think back on it later, that magic absolutely could not be beaten out of someone. It was inherent, as much a part of a person as their soul. Cindy, because Cindy was the smart one, knew that, and also knew that they would soon come to burn her. It wouldn't be too much after that before they came for Prompto too. Before either of those things could happen she had stolen some food from the kitchen and ran away with Prompto in the night.

By this point, the food was long gone, and though Cindy had started out with a direction ("My Paw-Paw lives down here somewhere. He'd take us both, if he only knew where I was.") they were now hopelessly lost in the snow and cold.

As much as children were aware of death, Prompto knew they were going to die. Unless a miracle happened, they would die here, huddled against this door, and then...well. No one really knew what happened after you died, did they?

The door opened. It was a giant creaking thing that almost sent them running back into the storm, or would have, if they'd had the energy left to run. What came from behind the door didn't look like the monster they'd imagined when they'd made their way up to the door. It was just a man with wild hair the color of rubies and eyebrows turned up in worry. "What's this? Children at my doorstep? No. No, this won't do at all. Come inside, at least until the storm passes." The man held out a hand to them. It was too inviting to resist, and without hesitation Prompto put his hand in his.

When Prompto looked back on it, it was his defining moment. It was also the worst decision he ever made. To die in the storm would have been better.

The man's name was Ardyn. To their luck, Ardyn was also a witch and had no such ideas about burning little children. Instead he fed them, clothed them, and set them up in their own personal rooms. Though he'd said until after the storm he made no move to make them leave when it had died down. Instead, at breakfast a week later Ardyn sat down at the table with his wide yet gentle grin and said, "If you're going to stay, you should start to learn."

Staying was an option that Prompto liked very much. He had never known kindness like Ardyn's. Prompto had also never had his own room, clothes that fit and didn't have holes, and three meals a day. He was sold.

Cindy was not so sold. "That's very kind," she said in her twang that the head of the orphanage had often tried to beat out of her. "But I would really like to get back to my Paw-Paw."

"I would not dream of keeping you from family," Ardyn said in his soft drawl that made Prompto's heart melt. "But I am loath to let a child back out in the winter. Do you perhaps know where he lives?" The most information that Cindy could truly provide was that she knew he lived in a witch town south of Ardyn's castle. That was somehow plenty of information for Ardyn. "I will send word to your 'Paw-Paw.' Yes, I will, I have my ways. I promise, come spring he'll know where to find you. In the meantime, I don't think it would be bad for you to expand your knowledge a little. Hm?"

Cindy couldn't argue with that, and so lessons began.

On Cindy's end, it became very clear very quickly that she was really only skilled in one thing - tinkering. "My whole family are tinkers!" She proclaimed loudly when Ardyn finally came to that conclusion.

"How fascinating," Ardyn had said. "I thought they'd stamped that devotion out nearly as soon as it came to be."

"Not where I'm from!"

That had made Ardyn smile his smile again, and from that moment onward, her lessons had been entirely tinker based. Ardyn had books upon books on everything, including a devotion he'd thought extinct.

Prompto was harder to pinpoint. Unlike Cindy, who had always been able to breathe life into even the small paper birds she'd folded at the orphanage, Prompto had never showed innate skill at...anything. His magic was a haywire thing that did whatever it wanted when it wanted. "I'm sorry I'm so dumb," he'd said the fifth time Ardyn had tried to pin him down to a task (potions that day. He'd been set to work from a large book that Prompto would look into many times over the years, for it was so beautiful, and contained so many rare potion recipes. That day in particular had been a particularly spectacular fail that Cindy had laughed at for days afterward).

"No!" Ardyn had proclaimed, loudly, angrily. "You are not dumb. Not at all. You've just never had direction! I suspect you are brilliant and skilled at many things, but we have to settle you into one thing first."

For a week after that, he spent his time learning the same lessons as Cindy. Then Ardyn had come to him with something new. A large book was sat in front of him. Inside was an introduction to alchemy. "It's a little of everything," Ardyn had explained. "And as such, might be a wonderful gateway to everything else."

It turned out to be everything Prompto needed in exactly that way. He took to alchemy like ducks to water, and after that many other things seemed to become possible too. He loved it. He had never thought that he could love magic this way. For as long as he'd known it, he'd known it as dangerous and wild. Now...now it was everything good, all because of Ardyn.

When spring came around and the snow melted, Ardyn told them that their afternoons were free. They always had been, but until now they'd been mostly dedicated to reading. Now they were being told to go play.

"Be back by dark," Ardyn told them. "And don't go beyond the forest's edge. There's a human town beyond it. It's not safe."

The forest surrounding Ardyn's castle was so large that the rule of being back by dark was much harder to follow than not going to out the town beyond. While they around about it in the afternoons they found many animals, none of which were hostile, and several ponds of varying sizes. Who needed the town beyond when they were perfectly happy to potentially just explore the forest forever? At least, that was how Prompto felt. Cindy, Prompto noticed fairly quickly, was growing more and more quiet and sad by the day.

Eventually, Prompto dared to ask, and he got the truth.

"What if Paw-Paw isn't coming? What if Ardyn never sent out the word? Or." She bit her lips. "What if he doesn't actually want me with him?"

"Then you'll just stay. It's not so bad here, right?" Prompto thought this was better than just not so bad, but perhaps he was wrong, judging by the way Cindy began to cry. He tried to hand over the perfectly docile hare he'd been holding and stroking, but even looking at it made her cry even more. Prompto felt terrible. He was so happy here, that it somehow felt like it was his fault that Cindy didn't feel the same.

As it turned out, all of Cindy's worries were baseless, though her Paw-Paw, a man named Cid, turned up closer to summer than anything resembling spring. He was a witch clearly past his prime, yet still with some years left in him. Cindy only came up to his shoulder, yet her hug seemed to drown the man in its desperateness.

"Thank ya," Cid said to Ardyn at length. "Fer lookin' after my girl." There was a pause before he added. "I'll take the boy too, if yer tired of havin brats nipping at yer ankles."

"I would be happy to keep Prompto with me," Ardyn said softly. "It's been quite a while since I've heard other voices about, and I must admit I've missed it. Though it is of course up to Prompto."

Prompto thought about it, he really did. He'd been at Cindy's side for nearly as long as he could remember. Did he really want to let her go and stay here? No, but in the end he decided that Cindy had her Paw-Paw now, and he wanted to leave Ardyn all alone even less. "I'll stay."

He should have gone.

It wasn't a bad life, not for a long time. He settled in as Ardyn's apprentice, not that Ardyn really seemed to have one single devotion. Ardyn had a great deal of knowledge and range, and he expected Prompto have the same. Mostly, that was fine, with alchemy under his belt a great many other things seemed to come more easily, though potions seemed to be forever beyond him, and by the time he was fifteen even Ardyn would have given up.

Though infrequent, Cindy visited the castle at least once a year. She told him stories about her new life and how her own apprenticeship under Cid was going. There was one thing though, that she kept mentioning that Prompto had never even heard of.

"What's a Wishing Tree?"

Cindy explained that it was the center of every witch town. It was a great magical being that protected the town in return for the town's own devotion and care. Witches would not survive without it, and in turn, the tree would not survive without the town.

"We don't have anything like that."

"No," Cindy agreed softly. "Maybe you should ask why."

He did, later, after Cindy had already started her trek home. The way Cindy had said it, she made it sound like something was wrong, or like it was something Ardyn would hide, and yet his master answered him without skipping a beat.

"We don't need one here."

"No?"

Ardyn shook his head, his smile wide and genuine on his face. "We have the forest."

"And it protects us?"

"Mostly. I can't keep it here all the time, but it's enough." Ardyn reached out and rested his hand against Prompto's cheek. "Don't worry about it, Dear Prompto. You're safe here."

Perhaps that was when he should have started questioning that something was wrong. He didn't.

His twentieth nameday was a quiet celebration, as all his namedays were. It was only him and Ardyn, but there was always cake and gifts. On that occasion Ardyn had bought him almost an entire new wardrobe including a very nice cloak and hat. "You're a full fledged witch now, it's good to have clothes to look the part for formal occasions." The words were accompanied by a flick to the brim of his new hat and a fond smile that Prompto had gotten used to, but still loved to see.

It was also on this day that Ardyn told him he thought it was safe for him to venture beyond the edge of the forest. "I think you can defend yourself well enough now, it should be fine."

"That's where you get your groceries and supplies, yeah?"

"Most of them, yes."

"I can go next time!"

"You don't have to, Dear Prompto."

"I want to! Promise!" It wasn't that he was unhappy, no. The forest was huge, and he never felt lonely with its flora and fauna about, but this was different. This was people and houses, and things he hadn't seen up close since he'd come to be at Ardyn's castle over a decade before.

"How can I say no when you look so eager?"

Ardyn sent him to town with a list the next next week. He didn't wear his new witch's clothes, as he didn't want to stand out too much. It worked, or it seemed to. No one seemed to much notice him at all. Though he returned with a heavy load, he also returned with a smile, and after that, Ardyn sent him down to the town once every two weeks to pick up some things they needed.

He was twenty-one when it changed.

He'd kissed the baker's daughter. It hadn't meant much, but she was cute and she blushed whenever she saw him, and Prompto felt fond. He would later not even truly remember her name, only that it started with S, and that she had ambitions beyond her father's shop.

It hadn't meant much, but it changed everything. The moment he set foot back in the forest a man appeared almost out of where. He was tall and serious looking, as serious as the words he said. "Run. Now. Never return."

"Wha--who are you?!"

The man didn't answer, but instead went on. "He knows, and he is angry. You will never get away if you don't run now. Run, Prompto, and I will cover you for as long as possible."

Prompto didn't listen. It would be one of his greatest regrets. Instead of running he walked right past the man, though he didn't give immediately. "I know he has been good to you! But he is insane! Please trust me!" He didn't. How could he trust the word of a man who's name he didn't even know over the reputation of his master? The one who had raised him? Had given him a good life? Had taught him everything?

He did not hear the man call for him again, but he swore that the trees whispered to him in his voice. _"When your opportunity comes, take it. My offer will still stand. Run."_

The entire walk back up to the castle the forest was quiet. Eerily so. Normally Prompto ran into at least rabbits and squirrels, but today, nothing. Even the trees seemed still. When he opened the front castle door, it was the opposite. Where everything was normally still and quiet inside, everything seemed to explode, most of all Ardyn himself.

"How could you?!" He seemed to scream over and over again, until Prompto felt like the words would never leave his brain. Until he couldn't leave his own voice silent any longer.

"I don't get what you're problem is! She's just a girl!"

"Just a girl?! Dear Prompto, you are mine!" Hands grabbed for his face, dragging him forward. His brain was blank until Ardyn's lips touched his, and then all his thought rushed back at once. No. He thrashed, not that it did him any good whatsoever. Ardyn kept hold of him, didn't even seem to notice the struggle. When he pulled back, just enough that Prompto could breathe, he was smiling. His thumb trailing over Prompto's cheek over and over again. "You're my One."

It was then that Prompto truly knew that the man in the forest had been right. He should have run. Now it was too late.

He was not allowed to go to town after that, and after an attempt to drown himself in one of the ponds he wasn't allowed to leave the castle. Ardyn kept a close eye on him always, and the worst part was that sometimes it didn't seem so bad. Ardyn could still be kind and gentle.

Once or twice something small would happen, like Prompto would still be up late at night watching the coals die in the fire, and Ardyn would appear. A blanket or cloak would be draped gently over his shoulders. Moments like those would make Prompto pause and wonder why he hated it so much. Why couldn't he just be happy like this?_ 'Because I don't love him,'_ he'd remind himself. He didn't love him. At all. He'd once loved him as his master, as his friend, as a father almost. All of that was gone now, replaced with a sickening hate and dread that filled him almost constantly.

"Come to bed, Dear."

A hand would settle on his shoulder and all doubt would be gone. He hated this. He hated everything.

Cindy's visits had become more infrequent over the years, but she still came by when she could. She came once when he was twenty-three. She didn't suspect anything. Prompto had counted it as a good thing that Ardyn hadn't done anything to her and let her go. She came again early in the spring of his twenty-fifth year. It was an unexpected visit, and that changed everything.

It was unusual for anyone to come knocking at their door. Prompto had slowly begun to figure out the forest kept them out or ran them out. Anyone who made it to the door was considered safe or harmless. That didn't leave many options, but still when Prompto opened the door he was surprised to find Cindy. Cindy too looked extremely surprised before her face darkened into something of anger. "Come on," she said, reaching out and grabbing his wrist in an almost painful grip.

All he could think to say was, "Where are we going?"

"Away." She ran, and Prompto could do nothing but follow. The forest didn't try to stop them. In fact, it seemed to almost part for them. They didn't trip, get lost, or run into anything. The man had promised, Prompto remembered. When the time came, it would help him, he just had to run.

Their flight didn't stop at the forest's edge though. Cindy drove them hard well past the village and off the path that she had come to them on. Prompto had thought Ardyn would catch them immediately, but when the sun began to set they were still alone, and Cindy paused for a moment. "Lemme see." Prompto didn't have to ask what she meant. He knew. He knew the moment she'd seen his face.

There was no hiding a half healed black eye.

"Why did he do this?" she asked as he turned his face so she could look at it properly. She didn't ask who. There was no need to. He wasn't even going to try and deny it.

"I tried to say no." He was very thankful she didn't ask him to elaborate, at least not now.

"Yer not going back there."

"He's going to come for me." Prompto didn't think that Ardyn was very keen to leave the safety of his forest and castle for very long, but he was also positive that Ardyn would not just let him go. Ardyn considered him his One. There was nothing that would keep him from searching.

"It's okay, Prom. The tree will protect you."

It took two more days to get to Cindy's town. It wasn't that much different looking than the village just beyond the forest, except that they walked past a giant white tree on their way in. Cindy said that that was the Wishing Tree. Prompto had never seen one before. It was beautiful.

Cid had aged a few more years since he'd last seen him. He was clearly in the declining stage of his life, but the smile on his face was just as genuine as it had been all those years ago when he'd reconnected with his granddaughter. That smile turned into a deep set frown when Prompto finally had to recount what had soured. "He should be burned," was all he said at the end of it, but Prompto knew that just those words, coming from a witch's mouth, were the most serious that could be said.

Nothing else was planned until the next day after they'd eaten and slept. "You're going to be Cindy's brother, who finally decided to come home after yer apprenticeship. You don't gotta tell anyone anything else, not if you don't want to." Prompto didn't. He wouldn't.

To passably be a member of their household, Prompto had to be a tinker. He'd been okay with it, way back when he'd been a child listening in on Cindy's lessons, but after nearly two decades Prompto didn't really remember much. Cid was happy to teach him. At first Prompto thought this was a strain or burden on Cid, but after a couple of weeks he realized that Cid loved it.

"There aren't a lot of tinkers in the world," Cindy said when he brought it up to her. "Paw-Paw likes your drive and curiosity too."

That was okay, because Prompto loved tinkering. He loved alchemy too, the way chalk slid over surfaces and runes came together to do a lot things he couldn't do on his own. He loved it, but there was definitely just something other about tinkering. He could get lost in a project for hours. His heart danced with joy for the first time in years when he made a flower made of silver that would dance in sunlight. If he could do that, then he knew he could do anything. The sheer room for creativity was just indescribably freeing.

"That's what a lot of people don't like," Cid told him three months into his stay. "Even witches don't really like change. Tinkering can make so many new things." He paused. "And so can alchemy, really. Wild new things that no one's even dreamed of. Magitek could really change the world if they let it, but they don't understand how that can be good, so they don't."

"Someday they'll see."

Cid had laughed loudly at that. "Maybe, but if they do it'll be long after I'm gone." He grinned. "That's okay though. The town gets it, and maybe acceptance will come in yer generation. That'd be nice."

Cindy had told him that the Wishing Tree would ask wishes of him, in exchange for his staying, but it never did. He never felt the Call, so he instead spent his days tinkering and running Cid's errands. The townspeople quickly got used to his presence, but it was almost a year before he first heard what they called him. "Argentum?"

The shopkeep nodded. "I know the family name is Aurum, but that's gold, and I have never seen you work with it. You're pure silver."

It was true, Prompto realized. Both Cid and Cindy worked with gold, but Prompto found silver infinity easier. He'd never had a last name before. Now he did. That was the moment he decided he could heal and be happy here.

That made it hurt all the more when it came crashing down half a year later.

Prompto didn't dare venture out of the town very often, too afraid that the moment he set foot outside Ardyn would be there, but Cindy had a wish in the nearby human town that involved a baby, and, well. Prompto loved babies. The mobile that Cindy hung above the bed sang a song when the baby (cutest little thing with tiny toes) and it fell asleep almost instantly. Heck, Prompto wanted to fall asleep in the wake of that song.

In return for making their child something to sleep to, the parents gave Cindy a bushel of apples and three pieces of jewelry that the mother complained Cindy wouldn't even wear. It. It was probably better that the mother didn't know Cindy just wanted the metal for some other project.

She made Prompto carry the apples, and honestly that was just fine with Prompto. "So you're happy with your trade?"

"Sure am!" She opened her mouth to say something else, but whatever it was, it was lost in the explosion they heard coming right from their village.

Prompto dropped the bushel of apples and they ran.

They arrived to fire.

It seemed like the whole town was in various stages of burning. They saw it before they even reached the Wishing Tree. They had to stop when they reached the Wishing Tree. It had been cleaved in half and torn from its roots. Prompto did not have to go any further to know what had happened here. Ardyn had found him, and the tree was not enough to stop him.

Cindy ran into the town. Against his better judgement, Prompto followed. She ran right for their home, and Prompto found himself unsurprised to find that it had the highest flames. Cid would already be gone. He didn't like to leave the house. He would have died inside it. It was his turn to grab Cindy's wrist and run.

Their entire lives became running after that. They ran with brief stays in witch towns between. They didn't dare stay anywhere more than eighteen months. Sometimes, when they found out they tinkered, or that Prompto had a thing for alchemy, it was less than that.

By the time he was thirty-seven, Prompto was tired of running. He wanted to settle. He wanted to live. He knew Cindy did too. How did she not resent him? He'd never know.

He met Ignis for the first time when he was thirty-nine. They'd only been in town for a month, but he found himself knocking on the Brewer's door nervously. The rest of the town seemed to view Ignis as something of an outsider. Cold, aloof, and unlikely to settle permanently, even though he'd been there for decades. Despite this, they said he was the best person in town to go to books for. He probably had what you were looking for.

The man who answered the door fit the descriptions he'd gotten, right down to letting him in to look at his books. "What in particular are you looking for Argentum?" Prompto crinkled his nose. He didn't like being called just by his last name. It was too formal. They'd only be in town for little more than a year. They should make bonds where they could. Not distance themselves.

"My sister and I are behind on the worship rituals. We were hoping to catch up before we moved on."

"Ah." The ah wasn't one of approval or disapproval. It just was, and Prompto was left alone in the dining area for only a couple minutes before Ignis returned with a thick tome. "Keep it as long as you need. If you want, you may copy it all down in a book of your own, and don't fall behind again."

"It looks like there's a lot more then worship rituals in here."

"There are," Ignis said plainly. "Copy those too."

"Really?"

"All knowledge is useful," Ignis said to him for the first time, but not the last. "And I don't think one should have to beg for it." Not that it was a long walk, but Ignis walked him to the door, the book hugged between Prompto's arms. "If you're missing ritual ingredients, check the market on Titan-Tide. One of the Amicitia siblings will likely have what you need." A short pause. "It ought to be Gladio this week."

Prompto spent the next several days copying down all the rituals, and when Titan-Tide came around Prompto went down to the market for some herbs he found he needed. When he got there, he got the surprise of his life. Standing behind a tiny table was what Prompto swore was the man in the forest. It had been so long ago, yet Prompto felt like seeing the man took him back to it like it was yesterday.

It wasn't him, he realized very quickly, but boy were they spitting images.

The man's 'twin' was Gladio. Gladio had a nice smile and a deep voice that hit him at his core. For the first time since Ardyn, Prompto began to imagine what it might be like to be with someone. Someone he wanted to be with. Someone who wanted to be with him too. He knew within the first couple of months that it would never be Gladio. Gladio would simply say yes if he asked, and he didn't want it to be someone who would just say yes to anyone. He wanted someone who would say yes to _him_. That didn't stop his heart from hammering away in his chest any time he saw him.

Prompto had gotten used to answering wishes now, but never had he had a wish like the one he got from Regis Lucis-Caelum. He was no healer, nor was he a brewer, yet he knew he could make something to save the woman and child's life. In return. In return he asked what had once been unthinkable. "I want the child. Your firstborn on its first nameday."

There was a reason.

"This one." He thumbed the page he'd copied from Ignis' own book back at home later. "This is the one."

Cindy read it. She had never really grown beyond tinkering, magically, but that didn't mean she was dumb. She knew what she was reading. It was a ritual, one of many, really, that was for protection. This one...this was connected straight to the Wishing Tree. With the life and potential of a firstborn the tree would gain an exponential power. Enough to perhaps hide them from Ardyn permanently.

"That nameday won't be fer over a year, Prom. We'll be pushing it. Hard."

"I know." Prompto bowed his head. "I think it's a risk worth taking."

To pass the time while they waited, they began to build on their little house. Cindy loved the building, and she loved the space for projects that came with it. Prompto loved the sense of permanence. The idea that they could stay.

When the time came, they found a rather large hiccup. Ignis was owed the child too. He returned home that night with a kiss tingling on his lips, a wish in his hand, and a Vow pulling at his heart. Cindy thought they should cut their losses and run. Prompto wasn't so willing to give up what they'd already built. They had alarms and warning signs. They'd come close to being caught before. They had time yet.

Ignis made it clear very quickly that he was hated, but that wasn't how Prompto wanted it. It was clear that Ignis could be vindictive, (seeing Gladio inside Ignis' house would haunt him for years to come, he swore) but Prompto had already seen that he could be kind. With a push that took more emotional willpower than he'd really wanted to give they resolved the hate at Harvest Festival, but the problem of Noctis still remained, and was only getting worse.

He'd never really wanted to harm a child. Never. He loved babies and children, and the idea of killing one tore at his soul. It was that or keep running though. It was that or keep Cindy running too. They didn't deserve it, neither of them did, and while Noctis didn't deserve to die, at least his death and suffering would be quick.

He tried to soothe the ache of knowing the child was going to die by one of their hands by spoiling him now, loving him now, being with him as much as he could now. He had Cindy do the same, when he was away answering his current Wish.

It was still the Wish he'd plucked on the night he'd made his Vow with Ignis. When he'd bitten into it he'd gotten a woman's plea to find an arsonist in Cartanica. He had failed to do so, and then it had escalated. The Wish had pulled at him one last time when the whole town had been set ablaze. It had mentally sent him back to the little town where he'd last been happy learning to tinker with Cid and following Cindy around to her own Wishes.

Ardyn was in every shadow, and it was too much for him alone. He couldn't do it. He needed help.

And then Ignis was there.

Ignis was answering a Wish he'd apparently been preparing for for weeks, but that didn't matter. He'd come, and he was willing to do whatever it took to help. Together they put out the flames and there was no Ardyn. For that alone Prompto could have kissed him, but then he also didn't take away his hope. He didn't demand Noctis, even when Prompto offered, and that was when Prompto was lost.

Cindy noticed right away. Of course she did. She was his sister.

"Are you sure that's wise?"

Prompto didn't insult her by pretending he didn't know what she was talking about. "It's fine. Nothing's coming of it."

"Are you sure? First Gladio and now Ignis."

"Yeah," Prompto heaved out a sighing laugh. "And they're sleeping together. It's perfect. My two crushes are never gonna even notice it. It's fine."

They grew closer though, close enough that when his nameday rolled around Cindy invited Ignis over. Iris came too. It made for the best nameday he'd ever had. Easily. The memory of it was something he'd hold dear in his heart for many years. A warming memory on days when he would think he couldn't go on. After that even Cindy warmed up to Ignis, but Cindy was getting more anxious.

"If you told him," she said one day over breakfast. "Why you wanted him, you know, the whole why, I bet he'd give Noctis over. He might even help power the ritual."

Prompto didn't think Cindy was wrong, yet he couldn't bring himself to tell Ignis that he was damaged goods. Nothing would ever come of it, but he loved Ignis. Ignis couldn't know.

The winter started early. It was a bad sign. More than once, Ardyn's arrival had been predated by unseasonably harsh weather. It often seemed that the man was powerful enough to do anything, and Prompto knew that when he came down to find Cindy fidgetting by the window at the beginning of snowfall that she was very worried.

"I'll talk to him today." He did feel bad after all. He'd been putting it off, and he'd been working on other projects or catastrophes (the soul thing would haunt him for the rest of his life. It was never resolved.) It was time to talk about what was going to happen to Noctis, even though this probably had nothing to do with Ardyn. Winters could be harsh here. It was just winter. (He had to keep telling himself that.)

"Please do."

He held thoughts of Noctis tightly in his mind as he made the trek to Ignis' home, knowing this might be the last time he would see him alive. He didn't want it to be like this. He loved Noctis. They shouldn't have let it go on this long. He shouldn't have let himself grow attached, but they'd been here too long. It was either kill the child or leave. Neither were appealing.

Everything after knocking on Ignis' door was a whirlwind. Ignis was clearly high on something, a lack of sleep, he would later guess. It all just went downhill from there. He was kissed, actually truly kissed with feeling and everything, for the first time since Ardyn. For the first second he panicked. No. This wasn't right, but it was. It wasn't Ardyn. It was _Ignis_. He loved Ignis, and he loved the way their lips felt together. Like they weren't meant to be separated.

Then it was a lie. It was all a lie. A manipulation. It hurt. Ignis had an answer. Ignis always came up with an answer for everything, but the kiss was a lie. It wasn't for him. Ignis just saw a way to get what he wanted. He saw a way and he took it. Prompto was a fool. He always had been.

Ignis tried to stop him, but no. He couldn't take it. Not now. He picked up Noctis, and then he ran. Next week, he told him. They'd discuss his solution next week, when he could face him again and not cry to know that he now knew what it felt like to kiss someone he truly wanted to kiss. And to know they didn't really want him back. They could move on, just as Ignis had said. Just one more week, and then this could all be done.

They didn't have a week.

The snow only got worse and worse, and then, after dusk midweek, the alarms went off. Bells filled the house, sensing a spike in magic too close by for comfort. He was definitely coming.

It only took ten minutes for them to be ready to go. There was a part of them that Prompto thought never really settled. A part of them always ready to turn tail and go. Cindy already had a bag, cloaks and the lanterns she'd designed to show the way even in the darkest nights and the deepest storms. They drank the potion Ignis had given him on his nameday, the Fortuna. Half for Cindy. Half for him. It tasted how Prompto imagined sunshine tasted. Maybe it would allow them to escape. After that there was only one loose string, and it was the babe that sat half asleep in his arms.

"He can't come with us," Cindy said. Even now she didn't really sound angry that he hadn't taken more action to kill him and secure their future here. Perhaps she too had come to love him. It was a nice thought. It didn't help them now.

"But I can't just leave him here either."

She paused. "How fast can you get to Ignis' place?"

"Fast enough, with the lantern."

"Then do it. I'll wait til you get back."

With Noctis in one hand and the lantern in the other, he ran. The storm made it hard, even with the lantern, but somehow he made it before too much time had passed. He knew because he hadn't even started getting cold beneath his cloak yet. He didn't bother to knock. He put the lantern down and forced the door open with a chalk rune, and Ignis was there, as though he'd been waiting.

He didn't linger. It was bad enough that he stayed to give him a kiss that wasn't about the Vow. He knew. He knew Ignis did not love him, but one. Just _one_ kiss to remember him by. It would have to be enough. "I love you."

"Prompto--" He covered his mouth. He couldn't let him say anything. He'd try to get him to stay. He'd try to get him to explain. There was no time for that anymore.

"Please don't kill our son." He didn't plan the words, but they slipped out anyway. One last plea before he ran. They were true, he thought. He was leaving behind his son. His son and the man he loved...his One. So this was how it felt. This was how it felt to have a One who didn't love you in return. This was how it felt to have to leave your One behind. To know you couldn't raise your child together. To know you were never meant to have happiness.

He ran, lantern in hand, and Cindy had kept her word. She was waiting for him when he got back. "He's going to set fire to the house." He always did. At least their house, if not the whole town.

"There's not much you can do about it now, Prom." Ah. There was a small bit of sourness. It somehow made him feel a little better.

He squinted at the door, as though it could reveal to him how to save it. Wait. "Hold on."

"Prom..."

"Just a second. Promise." In the cold and wind, his hand shook, but it didn't stop him from being able to draw a circle on the door. He'd done it so many times at this point that it was practically second nature. He just hoped that Ignis would recognize it and remember how to use it when the time came. "Okay," he whispered, the world lost in the wind. "Let's go."

The Fortuna kept them going for two days, but then it must have ran out, for the storm picked up and before them was a coeurl. It was only a coeurl for a moment, and then it was a man. It was Ardyn. He'd been running out in the winter cold for two days, but his blood was never colder than when Ardyn put a hand against his cheek. "There you are, dear." He was smiling, and Prompto didn't know how bad that was.

Ardyn answered the question for him. "Don't look so afraid. I know why you did it." A thumb trailed along his cheek, and Prompto wanted to scream. "You didn't have to though. You didn't have to prove anything. You were always worthy of being with me. Almost fifteen years is a very good run though. You did well, but it's time to come home." No. Not home. He'd just left home behind him to avoid the man before them. Ardyn was not talking about his home. Ardyn was talking about he prison Prompto would rather die than return to.

But when Ardyn held out his hand, he placed his inside it anyway. He knew Ardyn would kill Cindy if he didn't, and Prompto would willingly live in that hell if it prevented that.

**Author's Note:**

> Finished? Yes? Okay. Please go read something with a ton of fluff. <3


End file.
